USB project

[fisyon]

hi,
i want to build a circuit that can send data to the pc or can get data from the pc over usb. also i want it to work standalone.
i bought pic18f4550 for this purpose. i can program it for standalone projects but i don't know how and where to start for usb communication.
i have
a k182 clone programmer
a 18f4550 pic micro
a pc with visual basic 5 installed

what i need to do step by step?

[Anobium]

Sorry, the current focus is to release the next release of Great Cow Basic. The next release of Great Cow Basic is a stable platform for the future.

Regarding the USB driver. We have two streams of work. One Microchip and one ATMEL. Both have some working capabilities in terms of communications etc. Both streams need further work to complete the USB driver and testing.

Providing USB driver capability is one the high priority list for completion after the release.

[David Stephenson]

I recently bought a few FT201X chips which were quite cheap (£1.51 from RS). Despite the extreme complexity of the datasheet it turns out to be quite easy to send data from a microprocessor to a computer using USB. Here's the code on the PIC12F1552

sub ft201 'send to USB port
Hi2cstart
hi2csend(0x44) 'write
HI2Csend(temp1+48)
HI2Csend(temp2+48)
HI2Csend(46) 'decimal point
HI2Csend(temp3+48)
HI2Csend(32) 'space
HI2Csend(248) 'degree
HI2Csend(67) 'C
hi2cstop
end sub

It is sending a temperature reading Temp1 Temp2.Temp3 followed by space and degrees C.
The data on the computer can be accessed via a virtual COM port (it's COM4 on my computer).
I've used QB64 to read the COM port (but any terminal program should work I suppose).
Here's the QB64 code

SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(400, 200, 2)
font1& = _LOADFONT("c:\windows\fonts\times.ttf", 40, "bold")
_FONT font1&

DIM a AS STRING * 8
OPEN "com4:9600,N,8,1,CS0,DS0" FOR RANDOM AS #1 LEN = 8
DO
    WHILE LOC(1) < 8: WEND
    GET #1, , a
    _PRINTSTRING (50, 10), a
LOOP
CLOSE #1
END

Just to show it works here is a screen shot.